This invention relates to housings for the encapsulation of electrical connectors, and in one aspect to housings used in encapsulating telephone circuit wire connectors in a viscous encapsulating material.
The plurality of connectors used to interconnect wires of a telephone circuit such as a pressurized or non-pressurized splice case, or a telephone pedestal, must be protected from corrosion caused by moisture which may enter the splice case or pedestal. This protection cannot be conveniently provided by encapsulation in a self-curing encapsulating material within an enclosure as is taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,862,042, 2,908,744, 2,967,795 and 3,419,669 for use in splicing underground cables or by encapsulation in a removable encapsulating material within an enclosure as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,694, because of the large size of these enclosures relative to the normal size of splice cases or pedestals.
Such connectors have been individually encapsulated in a viscous encapsulating material by placing a wired connector into a flexible bag partially filled with encapsulating material, working the encapsulating material around the connector, and securing the open end of the bag about the wires leading to the connector which are formed into a bundle. This system, however, requires a large amount of the encapsulating material relative to the volume of the connector, and sufficient length in each of the spliced wires to form a wire bundle. The resulting encapsulated connector is large compared to the size of the connector so that it fills valuable space within the splice case or pedestal. The proper distribution of the encapsulating material around the connector is dependent on the operator's skill. Also, simply surrounding the connector with the encapsulating material does not insure that its interstices will be completely filled with the encapsulating material which, if present, will restrict arcing within the connector.
While inserting encapsulating material in the connector either at manufacture (where the material is an insulating grease) and/or during assembly thereof has been suggested, this process is messy and whether or not the interstices are completely filled is largely dependent on the care taken by the workman.